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Jesus IS our Savior

A professing man in my area passed recently and his daughter had a conversation with him before he passed about whether or not he believed Jesus was his savior. I’m not going to comment further on that conversation as it really isn’t mine to share. However, a friend and I have been having this conversation among ourselves (she used to go to meetings) and we were wondering did we really believe Jesus was our Savior while in the meetings.

I always believed (when I was in meetings) that Jesus was my Savior but I didn’t always believe that what He did for me (us) was enough. It was great what He did, but I believed that now, in turn, I had to do my part in order to secure my salvation. I just didn’t need to simply believe He was my Savior (that concept was actually made fun of because that was what ‘religious’ people believed, and we certainly didn’t want to be one of those kind of people.)

All the works I was taught in meetings had to do with helping me to move my salvation to the desired end. But I obviously did not believe Jesus was my Savior completely because I was never sure of my salvation.

It goes back to control. The workers had control over the friends through all the unwritten rules that, if kept, would give the friend a good funeral and the hope of eternal life. If the workers were ever to let go of that control, and simply encourage their flock to believe in the Grace of God and that, yes, by believing in Jesus Christ and confessing their sins, they would be saved, they then (the workers) could sit back and watch God work in individual lives in amazing ways. They wouldn’t be able to ‘control’ people, and yes, people would make mistakes and mess things up. But life is messy and we all screw up. The only one who didn’t was Jesus.

The workers could instead point people back to Jesus over and over again when they screwed up and tell the people that He could put all the pieces of their lives back together again. What the workers don’t know, is that, if they believed that and lived by that, their lives would be so much easier. They wouldn’t be worrying about ‘fixing’ someones life but instead, point them to the One who could fix things. All too often as a worker myself, I would come up with some solution of things to do, when all I would have needed to do was point them back to Jesus over and over again. THAT is part of the Good News of the Gospel.

I’m not sure a person could totally believe Jesus was their Savior unless you embraced the Gospel of Grace as well. If the workers embraced Grace, it would change EVERYTHING.

We never heard once at that recent funeral about Jesus sacrifice being ENOUGH. Period. In fact, we barely heard the name of Jesus at all. Need I say more?

I am professing and totally believe that Christ is my Savior, and died for me, you, and everyone once and for all ….for the sins of people of the past , present, and future. All we have to do is accept this gift, and live our lives to the honor and glory of God.

Darla, you must be a long distance mind reader! My outward self is going through some really tough patches right now but internally I feel that something good will come of all this. It’s easy to start having doubts and in my former life I would have known this was happening because God distanced himself from me because I was a sinner. My sister who has professed her whole life keeps suggesting I talk to the workers. Aargh! Then everyone could cluck their tongues and whisper (because most of them are terrible gossips) They don’t know that I have something better, that I have a savior and he will provide.
The gospel meetings that are called funerals! The only difference is that usually after Gospel meetings there’s not a luncheon (nor a body)
Unless the funeral is for a family member or a very dear friend I have stopped going to them because the funeral is not about the deceased nor about the gift of salvation, rather it seems to be the insecurity of not knowing and I think they want to keep it that way or they would be out of jobs

Wendy,
You are so right on and I laughed at your description of a gospel meeting and a funeral…the only difference being there is not a luncheon or a body!! I have about decided to not go to any more of their funerals either. Thanks for writing.

Yes, grace is totally liberating! The more I experience grace the less I feel the need to be answerable to anyone’s dogma. (This becomes very threatening to the imposer.) Grace does not isolate me from anyone. Instead, only by grace can I interact with others in a spiritually sound way. The “bewitched” Galatians left such liberty and plunged themselves back into bondage. (And made their imposters very happy!) I look forward to even greater manifestations of grace.

Any religious system that refuses grace must adhere to galling rules. The interesting thing about such systems is that the “elite” therein manage to find a different set of graceless rules to live by. It is like darkness being ruled by ultra darkness, which leads to the greater sin!

“…grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” “Truth” here is not as we have been indoctrinated! Instead, it means “a new reality”. Grace always precedes a new reality! There is a security about grace that I fail to fully grasp, but I do understand that my security in grace is not threatened by my sin. We need to keep in mind that the God of All Grace knows very well that He is dealing with creatures of all sin and He will not allow that creature’s behavior to be greater than His grace. Our sinfulness is clearly stated in Romans 1-3 and the rest of the epistle makes very clear that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” (It is vital to understand that God did not create sinners! Sinners came to be because of His enemy.)

So, let’s do like ole man Simeon did – make an act of faith and make a statement of faith and move on in peace to whatever is next: only because of Him who brought grace and truth!

Oh my you expressed my feelings and thoughts exactly. When I was professing I had to save myself. I wasn’t doing a very good job of that! We have a wonderful Savior! He saves us! He goes after the lost sheep! We are saved because we have a wonderful Shepherd not because of what we do!